Retinal thinning in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients without ophthalmic disease.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects motor neurons. Recently, three causative genes have been implicated in both ALS and glaucoma. However, it is still uncertain whether patients with ALS have neurodegeneration in their retinas. If so, retinal thickness measurements might be a useful biomarker for ALS progression. Previous work in this area has been inconclusive, as it has not taken into account the effect of ophthalmic diseases on retinal thinning.

Objective

To determine whether there are differences in retinal neurons in ALS patients utilizing spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). We tested the hypothesis that ALS patients exhibit retinal neurodegeneration that is no

SUBMITTER: Mukherjee N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5612691 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature